An earthquake struck the

Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

at 10:29

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

on June 23, 2020, with a magnitude of 7.4 . The epicenter was from San Miguel del Puerto and south-southwest of Santa María Zapotitlán. The quake was felt by an estimated 49 million people in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, with some tremors felt as far away as . Thousands of houses in Oaxaca were damaged and 10 deaths were reported. A

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

warning was issued for southern Mexico,

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

, and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

Tectonic setting

Oaxaca lies above the

convergent boundary A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more Plate tectonics, lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can ...

where the

Cocos Plate The Cocos Plate is a young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it. The Cocos Plate was created approximately 23 million years ago when the Farallon Plate ...

is being

subducted Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

beneath the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...

. The rate of convergence in this part of the boundary is 60 mm per year. This boundary is associated with many damaging earthquakes; along the plate interface, within the descending Cocos slab and within the overriding North American Plate. The most recent event in the same region as the 2020 earthquakes was the

2018 Oaxaca earthquake The 2018 Oaxaca earthquake occurred on February 16, 2018 at 17:39 local time (23:39 UTC) in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains in Oaxaca state in Southern Mexico. It had a magnitude of 7.2 on the moment magnitude scale and a maximum felt intensit ...

, which struck 225 km to the northwest. 6-year catalog of seismicity states that Oaxaca had had over 14,000 earthquakes near or in the region since 1995. The reason is that Oaxaca is in a region with many shallow subduction angles. 25 percent of all the earthquakes in Mexico are in Oaxaca. Oaxaca is near the Tehuantepec fracture zone, which is where the plates stick together causing frictions leading to earthquakes. Oaxaca collides with Cocos, North American and the Caribbean plate making it the perfect formula for big and dangerous plates.

Earthquake

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

of the earthquake was located south-southwest of

Santa María Zapotitlán Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

, between La Crucecita in the

Bahías de Huatulco Huatulco (; ''wah-TOOL-coh''), formally Bahías de Huatulco, centered on the town of La Crucecita, is a tourist development in Mexico. It is located on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca. Huatulco's tourism industry is centered on its nine ...

tourist resort to the southwest and the port of

Salina Cruz Salina Cruz is a major seaport on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is the state's third-largest city and is the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. It is part of the Tehuantepec District in the west of the I ...

to the northeast. The hypocentral depth was . The depth and the observed

focal mechanism The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the deformation in the source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a fault-related event it refers to the orientation of the fault plane that slipped and the slip vector and is ...

are consistent with displacement on the plate interface. Aftershocks and smaller quakes continued through Tuesday afternoon, and could be felt by residents of Oaxaca. Oaxaca interferogram ESA22145314 (ascending).jpeg, Surface displacement Oaxaca interferogram ESA22145314 (descending).jpeg, Surface displacement Surface deformation ESA22145355 (ascending).jpeg, Surface deformation Surface deformation ESA22145355 (descending).jpeg, Surface deformation

Damage

Widespread damage was reported from Oaxaca, with over 8,000 houses affected across 145 of the state's 570

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. Other damaged structures included 213 schools, 15 health centers, three hospitals, 7 bridges and 25 sections of state highways. Streets and buildings were also shaken in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, and damage was observed in at least 14 buildings across the city, including the collapse of a single floor residence and 3 buildings already seriously damaged by the

2017 Puebla earthquake The 2017 Puebla earthquake struck at 13:14 CDT (18:14 UTC) on 19 September 2017 with an estimated magnitude of and strong shaking for about 20 seconds. Its epicenter was about south of the city of Puebla, Mexico. The earthquake caused d ...

. Oaxaca’s governor said that there were around 500 houses that have been damages by the earthquake. Also an archeological museum and a few schools were affected by the earthquake. They estimate the total cost in damages is around 100 million. Houses were scarred by wide cracks across walls and residents sought to clear debris from the streets. Experts said that its location off the coast helps explain the relatively limited damage.

Casualties

Ten people were killed in

, and 25 people were injured. Most casualties were due to structural failure. A worker at the

PEMEX Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expr ...

oil refinery in

fell to his death from the top of a structure. A fire at the refinery injured another worker, although the fire was extinguished quickly.

Response

Due to the frequency of earthquakes in Mexico because its tectonic setting the Mexican government has been able to get better in their response. The Mexican government sent out a warning about the incoming earthquake with its alert system this allowed the residents to have enough time to get outdoors where it was safe. With some hospitals being damaged during the earthquake some patients had to be evacuated until it was safe to return.

Tsunami

After the earthquake, warnings for a tsunami were set out for a radius of allowing people to be prepared and stay alert. The highest wave that reached the coast was measured at in

Mazunte Mazunte is a small beach town on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico (). It is located 22 km southwest of San Pedro Pochutla on coastal Highway 200. Mazunte is located some 10 km to the west of Puerto Ángel and just about 1 km from ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oaxaca earthquake, 2020 2020 earthquakes Earthquakes in Mexico History of Oaxaca June 2020 events in Mexico 2020 disasters in Mexico